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Training Contract...my first few weeks!

5 September 2018 marked my first official day as a Trainee Solicitor at Woodfines. On my journey to the firm’s office in Bedford, I could not help but feel overwhelmed considering the challenging six year pathway that brought me to this point. I could finally award myself the title of ‘Trainee Solicitor’ and an immense sense of fear and excitement kicked in knowing that realistically, this was only the beginning.

After a week of inductions all trainees were placed in our respective departments and offices – my first seat being within the Dispute Resolution team in the Bedford office. I felt at ease beginning my training contract in a department that I had some familiarity with; given my time as a paralegal in the Dispute Resolution team in the firm’s Milton Keynes office.

One of the most important elements to me personally when securing a training contract was to ensure that I felt I was contributing to valuable work within a department at the outset. Prior to the commencement of my training contract I had heard the stories of trainees at other firms spending their days scanning and paginating documents. My experience thus far could not be any further from that, and my first few months as a trainee have been an incredibly positive experience.

On my first day in the team, I had attended the County Court (with supervision) and within the first few weeks of my role I had assisted with various different cases, undertaken research and attempted to draft various key documents for a variety of fee earners. I instantly began to feel as though I was positively contributing to the work of the team, even at such an early stage in my training contract which was incredibly important to me.

I am happy with the variety of work I have been undertaking and I can honestly say that the first two months have gone quicker than I ever could have imagined. I look forward to seeing what the remainder of my seat has to offer before I move on to another department in March 2019. Whilst I am extremely passionate about Dispute Resolution and consider this as a potential qualification option at the end of my training contract, I am hoping one of my next seats will be in the Company Commercial department, as this is another a practice area I have always wanted to delve into.